Hello to all. I recently attended an ITIL LIG reunion in the Atlanta area, this was after last month's iTSMf forum in Chicago. There was a comment that the University of Dallas (Texas?) was in the process of developing an MBA track based on ITIL/ITSM. Has anyone in the forum heard of this?

Should be interesting to see how this will be leveraged with the actual ITIL Master certification. Nice to see how ITIL is making inroads in Academia._________________audentes fortuna juvat

Yes, the U of Dallas was at the itSMF USA Conference in Chicago. They have several options leading to a Master's Degree. It is combined with business and other core classes. If you have the core classes you can just focus on the ITSM classes. If not, you will need to complete the core MBA classes as well. If I remember correctly, they said it was a two year program. You can go to the U of Dallas site to get more info.

I agree on the inroads to academia. It is my own background and have been looking forward to the convergence.

This seems to be a growing movement. At this week's ITSMF conference in the UK, there was information regarding an HP-sponsored MBA in Servbice Management at Sheffield Hallam university. You would either do the manager's certificate as part of the course, or receive credits for already having it. They are exploring offering it by distance learning. I will get the details and post them here.

Just in case anyone is interested Im in the UK and have done some digging with HP.

I have just had a really positive reply from HP Im quite excited now I just need to worry about money and having the right qualifications to be eligble to apply and being able to do it near my home or via distance learning!!!

Heres the reply:

Many thanks for your enquiry regarding the ITSM based Masters Degree that we publicised at the itSMF Conference.

The response from the conference questionnaire was very encouraging and we have decided to go ahead with production of the course - and are working with Sheffield Hallam university on the syllabus and material. Unfortunately this will take some time as we have had to get approval for funding and resources etc. We hope that much of the material can be developed during the summer and autumn, but we are not yet in a position to say when the course will be available for admissions. My own guess is that it may well be 2007 before this is ready. We have already had initial discussions with other universities in other countries about making this available elsewhere at the same time

Hmm thanks for that information Rache. I've been toying with whether it's worth doing a general business MBA when I want to go the ITIL Manager's certificate route. However, if they do get this off the ground and the syllabus looks right then it may be just what I'm after...

I am interested, rache. Can you email me/post the HP contact you have. Thanks
Liz Gallacher

Rache wrote:

Just in case anyone is interested Im in the UK and have done some digging with HP.

I have just had a really positive reply from HP Im quite excited now I just need to worry about money and having the right qualifications to be eligble to apply and being able to do it near my home or via distance learning!!!

Heres the reply:

Many thanks for your enquiry regarding the ITSM based Masters Degree that we publicised at the itSMF Conference.

The response from the conference questionnaire was very encouraging and we have decided to go ahead with production of the course - and are working with Sheffield Hallam university on the syllabus and material. Unfortunately this will take some time as we have had to get approval for funding and resources etc. We hope that much of the material can be developed during the summer and autumn, but we are not yet in a position to say when the course will be available for admissions. My own guess is that it may well be 2007 before this is ready. We have already had initial discussions with other universities in other countries about making this available elsewhere at the same time

david.wheeldon@hp.com was the man who replied - I also read in an article (I think an article on education in one of the service talk mags on the itsmf site) that either nottingham or northampton uni were working on a sylabus for a degree.

The same David Wheeldon who co-authored the ITIL books and helped found the itSMF?

And yes Rache, it was an article 'University Challenge' in January's service talk magazine. Masters in IT Service Management in development at Northampton (cf. Roy Taylor), and De Montefort had overhauled their Bachelor's degree to take account of service management. Though having had a look at their site it's not available yet.

I dont know if its the same guy that would be good it would mean the degree would definately be following ITIL best practice and should provide reassurance to graduates but also employers that it was worth having